It's big sigh of relief for a lot of those workers. A rep with WRPS, the new consortium who'll take over the contract, tells KNDU the company plans on only replacing top management.

They'll keep the other employees to ease the transition.

WRPS is made up of a couple of contractors who're already prominent on the site; Washington Group International and EnergySolutions.

Company reps say the transition should be smooth and hope to get to work right away.

"The three teams combined really bring the combination of global personnel and global access to technology that can really be used in the cleanup work here at Hanford so I think that'll be a tremendous benefit," said Penny Phelps with WRPS.